Spain: Eurovision candidates and their songs have been selected
17 songs have been selected and paired with 13 of the Operación Triunfo contestants. Operación Triunfo – Eurovision Gala will be held in January 2019 selecting the Spanish entry for Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Operación Triunfo is a reality TV show in Spain. The TV show is a mix between Big Brother and a talent show. 16 hopefuls started in "The Academy" in September 2018, where they are being coached in several artistic disciplines. Once a week a "Operación Triunfo Gala Show" is being held, where the participants sing a cover version of a song they have prepared during the week.
Every week one of the participants are eliminated from the Academy, based on the judges' verdicts and public voting.
Operación Triunfo and Eurovision
Operación Triunfo will be used to find the Spanish representative for Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv. The selection for Eurovision 2019 takes place in January 2019.
953 songs were submitted to the Spanish broadcaster RTVE in November 2018. Two separate juries have chosen 17 of these songs to proceed to the next stage of the song and artist selection for Eurovision 2019.
The 17 selected songs have been paired with 13 of the Operación Triunfo participants in various combinations: One candidate (Miki) has three songs to compete with – two solo and one in a duet. Four candidates (Natalia, Sabela, Marilia and Carlos) will compete with two songs, and the rest will compete with one song.
Operación Triunfo – Acts for Eurovision 2019
- Alba Reche – "¿Qué será luego?"
- Carlos Right – "Nunca fui"
- Carlos Right – "Se te nota"
- Damion – "Sale"
- Famous – "No puedo más"
- Joan Garrido & Marilia – "A tu lado"
- Julia – "Qué quieres que haga"
- Marilia – "Todo bien"
- Marta – "Vuelve"
- María – "Muérdeme"
- Miki & Natalia – "Nadie se salva"
- Miki – "El equilibrio"
- Miki – "La venda"
- Natalia – "La clave"
- Noelia – "Hoy vuelvo a reír otra vez"
- Sabela – "Dímelo de frente"
- Sabela – "Hoy soñaré"
The 17 songs will be recorded, and a one-minute-snippet of each song will be online on rtve.es from 20 December 2018. Here the public can vote on their favourites until 2 January 2019.
There will be 10 songs competing in the Operación Triunfo – Eurovision Gala: Top-3 songs from the online voting and seven other songs selected by experts.
The Operación Triunfo – Eurovision Gala will be held in January 2019.
Spain in Eurovision Song Contest
Spain has participated in Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since its debut in 1961. They have won twice, in 1968 (La, La, La...) and the folowing year, 1969 (Vivo Cantando).
Spain is a member of "Big-5", and therefore don't have to qualify for the Grand Final. Spain is also a member of the "club zero", because they have managed to get zero points (3 times!). They have ended last 5 times in Eurovision history, latest in 2017.
Best known song for Spain is probably the song "Eres Tú" from Eurovision 1973 (2nd place, only four points from victory).
